Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-08-06
The Printing Pres, One Of the Agencies of
Gospel Proclamation.
THE SERMONS OF THE FUTURE.

"S
THE HAMProNs, July 24.-The Rev.
T.. Dewitt TalmAge's subject this morn
ing was: preaching, Teaching and
Exhortation," and his text:
Romans IL, 7th and 6th verses: "Or min
istry, let us wait on our ministering; or he
that teacheth, on teaching; or he that ex-
horteth, on exhortfng."
Before the world is converted the
style of religious discourse will have to
be converted. You might as well go
into the modern Sedan or Gettysburg
with bows and arrows instead Of rifles
and bombshells and parks of artillery,
as to expect to conquer this world for
God by the old styles of exhortation
and sermonology. Jonathan Ed
wards preached the sermons most
adapted to the age IN which he lived,
but il those rmo were preached
now they would divide an audience
into two classes, those sound asleep
and those wanting to 90 home.
But there is a religious discourse of
the future-who will preach it | have
no idea, in what part CT the earth it
Will be born ! have no idea. in which
denominations of Christians it will be
delivered | cannot guess. That dis
course or e2''ortation may be born in
the country Westinghouse on the banks
Of the st. Lawrence, or the Oregon, or
.he Ohio, or the Tombigbee, or the
Alabama. The person who shall de-
liver it may this moment be in a cradle
under the shadow of the Sierra
Nevadas, or in a New England farm
house, or amid the rice fields of south
ern Savannas. Or this moment there
may be some young man in some Of
eur theological seminaries, in the jun
ior or middle or senior class, shaping
that weapon of power. Or there may
be coming some new baptism of the
Holy Ghost on the churches, so that
some of us who row stand in the watch
towers of Zion, waking to a realization
of our present inef1iciency, may preach
it ourselves. That coming discourse
may not be fifty years off. And let us
pray God that its arrival may be has
tened, while | to you what |
think will be the chief characteristics
of that discourse or e%xhoItatiop when
1t docs arrive, and ! want to make the
remarks of the morning appropriate
and suggestive to all classes of Chris
tis.ns
Ii CHIEF CHARACTERISTICS OF
COMING SERMON.
First of all | remark. that future re-
ligious discourse will be full of a living
Christ ia contradistnction to didactic
technicalities. A discourse may be full
of Christ though hardly mentioning His
name, ard a sermon may be empty of
Christ while every sentence is repeti-
tious of His titles. The world wants a
living Christ, not a Christ standing ut
the head of a formal system of theology,
but a Christ who means pardon and
sympathy, and coincidence, and brother
hood, and life, and heaven. A poor
mans Christ. A rich mans Christ.
An overworked mans Christ. An in
vllId's Christ. A farmers Christ. A
merchants Christ. An artisans Christ.
An every mans Christ.
A symmetrical and tine-worded sys-
tenn of theology is well enough for
theological classes, but it has no more
business in a pulpit than have the tech
nical phrases of an an1tomist or q
psychologist or q physician in the sick
Of a patient. The world wants
help, immediate and world-uplifting, |
and 1T will come through a discourse in
which Christ shall walk right down in
to the immortal soul and take everlast-
4
ng possession of il, filing it as full of
light as is this MONDAY armament.
That sermon or exhortation of the
will not deal with men in the
.threadbare illustrations of Jesus Christ.
In that coming address there will be
instances of
vICARIOUs sUFFERINGs
taken right out of everyday life, for
there is not a day somebody is not dy-
ing for others. AS the physician saw
ing his diphtheritic patient ny sacrific-
ing his own life; as the ship captain
going down with his vessel, while he is
getting his passengers into the life
b ,at: rs the fireman consuming in the
burning building while ne is taking a